


His Constable

by Gayle (gay_le_forcewinds)



Series: TrobedTV [2]
Category: Community (TV)
Genre: Bickering, F/F, Fluff, Homophobic Language, ITS ABOUT THE YEARNING, Jeff/dean (unrequited but not for long sh), M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-08
Updated: 2020-12-08
Packaged: 2021-03-10 02:42:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,787
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27947000
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gay_le_forcewinds/pseuds/Gayle
Summary: It literally took me several days and nights of reading, writing and researching just to produce this and I love it with all my heart, so I hope you do too.This show has become my obsession, this ship has become my otp, and this fic has become my life's work.Funny how quarantine will do that to ya.
Relationships: Annie Edison/Britta Perry, Troy Barnes & Annie Edison & Abed Nadir & Britta Perry, Troy Barnes/Abed Nadir
Series: TrobedTV [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2046644
Kudos: 11





	His Constable

**Author's Note:**

> It literally took me several days and nights of reading, writing and researching just to produce this and I love it with all my heart, so I hope you do too.   
> This show has become my obsession, this ship has become my otp, and this fic has become my life's work.   
> Funny how quarantine will do that to ya.

Abed had spent most of the day online shopping for filming supplies.   
Now, he was finally ready to click "ship" on the order for everything he and Troy needed to make their new dreamotorium/at-home studio. The film-maker already had costumes, a camera, and the supplies to section off and safeguard the room. Not to mention all the film and video editing software he downloaded onto his computer. However, he wasn't even close to done. He still needed good lighting, a green screen, and a few more props that were currently only going to be used for the movie he was about to make, but would probably end up being used for more stuff down the line.   
Amazon said that the order would take about a week to ship.

He knocked on the door of his and Troy's shared bedroom. "Can I come in?"   
"Of course, Abed. You don't even have to ask at this point." Troy said, smiling fondly as he got up from the bed and let him in.   
Abed shut the door behind him. "I know, but I always do so to be polite. I don't wanna walk in on you changing or anything like that."  
Troy sat back on the bed. " You know, I wouldn't mind if you did."   
Abed sat next to him and put a hand on his shoulder. It was a type of physical contact he didn't typically do, but with Troy, it felt normal. "I wanna have your consent before I see you like that, though."  
Troy shook his head. "So, what have you been doing all day?"  
"Getting everything we need to set up the dreamatorium and make it suitable for filming. We already have the layout, so it won't be much work to put it all together once it ships." Abed explained. "I've been putting off all this preparation for a while, but I figured now was a good time since I just came with an idea for a movie."

Troy had been in many of Abed's movies, mainly for film class or simply to get the idea out. Yet, the movie he just mentioned felt as if it was going to be different because it was going to be at a much bigger scale given the more professional setup.  
The movie would probably take forever to actually make, given that Abed is a major perfectionist, especially with his films.

Sometimes he would even stop to make corrections during his _own takes_ because even _he_ couldn't quite capture _his own_ vision.

Troy didn't mind, though. He actually found it cute, watching him ramble on about the importance of whatever scene they're doing and why it needs to be the way it is.   
Even though is way more of a movie-goer than a filmmaker, he was happy to go along with Abed's elaborate ideas. He was usually quite sensitive, but he didn't mind being ordered around by him when filming because he always liked how things turned out. Abed always knew what he was doing way more than people gave him credit for.

Abed knew too that he was a very particular person and that Troy was an anomaly for being able to handle it. The first time he made a movie with anybody other than Troy, he had to leave all of the little imperfections alone, go with whatever happened, then fix it all and post because they were on a strict schedule.   
It actually kind of felt weird trying to just wing a movie. It felt even more weird to make a movie without his companion.   
Sometime he'd have to rewrite and reshoot the movie to include him. Maybe Shirley too. All of friends, even her, deserved to be in season 6 and should be in what was now basically season 7, even if they got busy spinning off sometimes.

Even though Abed knew the filmmaking process was tedious, he always enjoyed it. All the hard work was always worth it for the final product. TV shows and movies were how he expressed and entertained himself. Most people saw that as odd, but just let it be, considering it his way.   
What made Abed love Troy was that he understood that better than anyone, despite him being somebody who never had trouble expressing his feelings, no matter how much other people pushed them down. He always wore his heart on his sleeve. He knew what it was like to have his feelings be suppressed.   
In high school, he got made fun of for how emotional he was because his friends thought it made him gay, or a sissy. What made him become so unafraid of judgement was his first date with a girl, which he only went on to prove he wasn't gay, where he straight up bawled after the first 10 minutes of Up, hiding his face in his hands and she just smiled and said, "Don't worry, that's a normal reaction.".

That was the first time he was really effected by a person, or a movie.   
Abed was responsible for every time after that.   
Though Troy never loved them the same way, he loved them at the same level, or at least tried to. Though, he loved anything Abed loved simply because he loved Abed.   
So of course, when Troy heard him and Abed were making their first professional movie together, as a couple nonetheless, he was beyond excited.

"What's it about, what's it about, what's it about?" Troy chanted, giggling and bouncing in his seat on the mattress.   
"Now now, remember what Jeff said about jumping on the bed?" Abed chastised playfully.   
"That's a terrible idea for a movie."   
That fact it was a joke was sort of glossed over by Abed. "Yeah, I know. That's why it's not the movie." he said at a level monotony that would be weird for anyone other than Troy to hear. Abed seems so deeply melancholy when he speaks like this to anyone else, but Troy relishes in it because he knows it means that he's at his most calm. Nothing ever felt weird or boring with Abed.

A grin spread across Abed's face as he started to share the big pitch. "The movie is going to be about an alternate universe where Inspector Spacetime and Constable Reggie are in love with each other."   
"Cool! Troy squealed. "So, same roles as when we always play Inspector Spacetime?"

"Yeah, except this time it'll be way more serious, because we're not playing. We are making a romantic sci-fi adventure."

A week later, Troy and Abed set up the new dreamatorium and started shooting.   
Basically, Abed's plan for the plot was for it to start out like a typical episode, with the Blorgons and their creator getting ready to take over the world as Inspector Spacetime shoots wave after wave of them with a ray gun and Constable Reggie is on guard and lock down. Then, eventually, everything is subverted when Constable Reggie ends up having to fight for Inspector Spacetime because the new wave is resistant against all of Inspector Spacetime's weapons. Right before Constable starts fighting, he confesses to the Inspector. There's a tender moment before the newest and toughest wave of Blorgons are defeated and the whole world blows up while they kiss, until they pull away realize that they finally won.

He decided to first do all the scenes that could be easily just be closeups of one of them while the other is offscreen doing other voices and sound effects to fill in for the other characters because they're easier, and there's less of them. After that, he'd do the scenes where they're both on screen together and other voices and sound effects will be edited in since those require more tactic and attention to detail because it means having to focus on twice the amount of characters at once.

With that in mind, he began shooting all of Troy's scenes as Constable Reggie.  
"Action."   
He played a sound of wailing Blogons in the distance.   
Troy took that as his queue and began. "Hear that, Inspector? After all this time, new waves are emerging again. We have to stop them. _Together_."   
For the first time ever, Abed had no notes. Troy captured the concern and devotion perfectly. He gave him the genuine smile that he only used for what was really special to him, then turned off the camera.   
"Cut. Perfect on the first take. That's extremely impressive."   
"Especially for your standards. I expected you to spend hours on just those few lines."   
"With anyone else, I probably would've had to. Not with _my_ Constable, though."   
It felt so natural for the two to be together in that moment. Probably because neither of them knew that the camera was still rolling.

Abed then skipped to the climax of the film since that was the next close-up scene of Troy.   
He played some bomb exploding and ray-gun shooting noises, then had Troy position himself as if the two of them were crouched behind a wall shooting Blorgons and he was huddled behind him. He filmed him from the side, starting him with the lines that lead up to the scene he was trying to capture.   
"None of my weapons are working. I'm afraid you're going to have to fight this battle."

Troy pulled off scared and insecure just as well as concerned and devoted. He was a surprisingly good actor. He had Troy look sort of towards the camera at this point.   
"Inspector, I don't know if I can do this."   
"Nonsense. Of course you can. You're a natural-born fighter. I can see it in your eyes." Abed said as sincerely as he possibly could while drawing the camera into Troy's eyes, noting to himself to add bokeh and other lighting enhancements to bring out their shiny rich brown in the final product regardless of the fact that Troy's eyes were already beautifully soulful and bright.   
The almost perfect take was shattered by Troy dissolving into giggles.   
Abed was soon giggling too. "Cut, damn it!" he pretended to cut the camera out but left it on because he loved seeing Troy get all goofy like this, and he wanted to make a   
behind-the-scenes montage with bloopers to add to the deluxe edition of the movie's DVD. This was one of many little mistakes and moments he'd secretly, or accidentally recorded.   
"Why are you laughing? I wrote that scene to show how in love they were! Well, that and every other scene in this movie. But this, was supposed to be the hint before the confession. And you just messed up what was about to be another perfect first take. I'd be killing you right now if your laugh wasn't so contagious." he said in between giggles and wheezes.   
Troy laughed, putting a hand up in defense. "I'm sorry Abed, I love your writing but that scene was really gay. Especially when you zoomed in on my eyes. I just couldn't contain myself." he confessed. "It felt like something out of an old, cheesy rom-com. That was the gayest thing ever."   
"Troy, _we're_ gay."  
Troy's eyes widened. "Right. Shit. Forgot."   
Abed cracked up at that. "How do you _forget_ you're gay?"   
"With you, it doesn't feel gay, or at least, not in the way I was taught being gay felt. Like, bad or weird. It feels good, like home."   
Abed sighed dreamily. "Okay, you think you good to do that take again?"   
Troy nodded, his hands clasped as he tried to calm down. His face went from beet red, back to its original tone. He took a deep breath. "Yeah.."

Abed turned off the camera for real this time.   
He turned it on again and repeated the same queueing process as before, then let Troy redo the now infamous "gay scene".   
"I don't think I can do this."   
"Nonsense. Of course you can. You're a natural born fighter. I can see it in your eyes."   
Abed tried not to think about the fact that Troy was kinda right about how gay it sounded.   
Neither of them really meant it in a bad way, even if they were taught to.

The camera wasn't capturing it, but Troy's hand was over his mouth to keep himself from dying of laughter after just being resurrected.   
"Keep it together." Abed mouthed.   
Abed hummed happily when he saw Troy relax and slowly remove his hand from his mouth just in time for the camera to pan out. He then continued to the next scene with even more confidence than before. "I know you can do this. You have to go for it."   
"How am I going to defeat them? I don't have weapons like you do." Troy looked over the wall he was supposed to be hiding behind.   
"True, but you are much more fit than I am. You could probably beat them all to death with your bare hands."  
Troy blushed a little. "I wouldn't go that far."   
He ducked as more Blorgon noises played and crouched behind the wall once again.   
"I don't know how much longer we can keep this up."   
He played a clang sound effect.   
Troy recoiled. "Oh god.." he then turned to the camera slightly. "Inspector, if we die, I want you to know that I love you."   
"I love you too."   
He then deepened his voice for the condescending Blorgon. "Aw, how sweet. Now, prepare to die!"   
"No!" Troy screamed, kicking really hard.   
Abed played a bunch of banging sounds and then a big explosion one to represent one Blogging falling down, causing a domino effect that killed the whole hoard and their creator.   
He'd have to add a human scream for him.   
Of course he'd pick the Wilhelm scream.

Troy widened his eyes and pretended to be shocked.   
Abed "cut" the camera. "One more time, look genuinely dumbfounded." he suggested.   
They tried again, but something was off.   
"Maybe imagine an actual explosion?" Abed tested as he played the sound again, planning to add reflections of the explosion to Troy's wide eyes.   
That did wonders.  
Suddenly, Troy looked like he actually couldn't believe that him and his best friend conquered the world just like that. Because he couldn't.

Abed cut the camera again, for real this time. "Great job. One more scene to go."

He filmed Troy from the side again, having him jump up and down excitedly while triumphant music played. "We did it! We finally did it! We saved the world!"   
"You look so cute.." Abed muttered.   
Troy looked at him shyly. "Wh-what?"  
Abed looked away. "N-nothing.. Just.. Redo that take while I try not to freak out about it behind the camera.." he told him.   
Wow. It's all about _your_ constable, huh?"  
"Shut up." he said jokingly, cutting the camera.   
They retook the line, then had Abed respond correctly this time.

"No, you did."   
"We did. Together."   
Abed hit the off button with a sigh of relief. They were a third of the way done. "That's a wrap on Reggie!" he exclaimed. He came out from behind the camera to give Troy a congratulatory hug.   
He pulled away and immediately went right back into the zone. "Okay, you get behind the camera for the Inspector's scenes."   
Most of them were just responses to Constable's lines that would later be stitched together.

Mainly, he just had to do his part of the big scene he just shot. He could've just mouthed along with the recoding, but he figured it'd just be better to say the lines again, in case he messed up the tone the first time because he was distracted by Troy.

He replayed the first line of the scene.   
"None of my weapons are working. I'm afraid you're going to have to fight this battle." he sighed. "No, it's too monotone."   
He had Troy stand behind the camera and told him exactly how he and when he wanted him to move it for the scene as he redid it. He crouched in front of where Troy was going to be, looked over the wall and lined up his  
ray-gun movements with the sounds. Then, he did the same for the fake bombs he had.   
He waited a bit, had Troy add sounds of surging Blorgons, then went behind the wall and stood with his back to it, head down in defeat. "None of my weapons are working." he said dejectedly. He turned to where Troy would be in the scene. "I'm afraid you're going to have to fight this battle."   
Abed signaled for his boyfriend to cut the camera. Troy hit the off button with a smile. "You just completely changed the tone of that scene."   
Abed nodded giddily. "I know, I've been trying to work on tone."   
"I think you're nailing it. Wanna keep going?"

Abed wished they could, but they couldn't do it alone. "I think I want the next few lines of that part to have us both in the shot and kinda switch off, so we'll have someone else help us with that later. For now, let's just go to the next part. Right before you kill all the Blorgons. I think my "I love you" sounded right, so now I just need to make it look right."  
Troy reshot Abed saying the line, this time looking to Troy's place in the scene with so much care, that it almost felt like he was there and not behind the camera. He really wanted to go over there and kiss him.   
Abed smiled widely and gave the "cut" signal again. "Okay, now can you replay the "Prepare to die"?"  
Troy clicked the button on the soundboard and the line played.   
Abed hummed. "Needs to be more evil."   
Troy turned the soundboard on again so they could do another take.   
Abed cleared his throat then went into a lower, more sarcastic register, similar to the voice he'd do for the evil version of himself in the darkest timeline. "Aw, how sweet." he then channeled all the anger he could to make himself sound more threatening. "Now... Prepare to die!"   
Troy gave him a thumbs up and stopped recording. "Okay, get in shot for the final line."

Abed stood the side and smiled fondly when Troy played the line he recorded earlier for Richie to queue him in. Troy had him slightly turn to the camera as he told him he saved the world in the most adorably sentimental cadence.   
Troy cut the camera happily.   
"You did it!" Abed cheered.   
"No, you did."   
"We did. _Together_."   
Abed snickered at the fact that they were already quoting their _own_ movie. "Okay, now how are we gonna perfect the shots with both of us?" Abed questioned. "We need someone else behind the camera."   
They both instantly got an idea.   
"Annie!" they shouted in unison.

Troy called her. "Hey Annie. Wanna come over and help us film our first professional movie?"   
"Of course!" She tilted her head. "Wouldn't you rather have Britta though? She's the one who loves photography! I'm sure she'd be great at filming!"  
Troy laughed hysterically.   
Abed looked at him. "What's up?"   
Troy covered the phone with his hand. "Annie just said that Britta should help us film."   
Abed took the phone. "I'm sorry Annie, but we need someone who knows how to steadily work a camera. Britta can't do that. She has shaky cam syndrome."   
Annie let her classic gasp. "She does not!" "Look at all the photos she's taken. Show me one that isn't blurry." Abed retorted.   
There was a long pause.   
"Okay, you're right."   
"Told ya. You're only one who wants to help us that actually can. Jeff would probably make fun of us, Shirley would probably throw her holy book at us, Dean would probably go too intense with it, And Chang would just make it awkward. Please?" Troy begged.   
"Sure." Annie hung up the phone and immediately drove to the apartment.   
"Okay, so what do you need me to film?"

"Just the scenes where we're both in the shot."Abed said, showing her to the camera so she could help.

They started out with the beginning scene.   
Annie panned to Abed so he could repeat that they were saving the world together, then zoomed out to both of them holding hands and facing each other with determined expression.

She then helped shoot the big speech scene, focusing on how Abed cupped Troy's face, and put his hands on the other's shoulders, telling him over and over that he could do this.   
She made sure to follow all of Abed's instructions, no matter how abrasive, that way she could perfectly line up all the scenes, especially all the ones where she had to keep switching where she panned over and over while they both crouched behind a wall to avoid the Blogons.   
Shooting the confession and kiss scene nearly made her cry.   
Abed later added an explosion behind it, which somehow made it more and less   
heart-wrenching.   
Shooting the final rejoice scene where the couple jumped for joy and brought each other into a tight embrace actually did make her cry.   
She choked back happy tears and covered her mouth, enamored as she panned out on them hugging.

Abed signaled for her to hit the off button, and she did. He checked on her right after that.   
"You okay?"  
Annie removed her hand. "I'm okay. This is just a sweet film and I'm so glad to be apart of it. I almost feel like a third wheel behind the camera with how much romance is in this movie." she confessed.   
"Eh. It's sci-fi romance adventure." Troy said, nudging Abed.   
Yep, that's what we're calling it."   
"Can you guys show me, and maybe the rest of the group the finished product when you're done with it?"   
"Of course. I'm gonna put this on a DVD so everyone can see it." Abed reported.   
"Cool! I can't wait!" Annie practically screamed.   
The three bounded around with freeing excitement.   
Troy and Abed did their usual handshake, then sang "Troy and Abed making movies!"

Later that night, Troy and Abed began the editing process by transferring all the footage from his camera to his computer, which meant waiting what felt like years for it to upload.   
Abed ended up doing most of the movie's editing. He matched all the sounds with their corresponding footage, made green-screened environments come to life, and added in CGI for the Blorgons and their creator, with Troy standing in to take care of him and help with anything he couldn't figure out.   
Abed then cut together the behind-the-scenes montage as a separate file. Turns out there was a lot more accidental recordings than secret ones. He still couldn't believe how much they all forgot to actually cut the camera when they thought they did. It was fun to have all that footage, though. It gave him more to work with.

The editing took about a week.   
After that, Abed texted Jeff. "Do you still have the dean on your phone? Me and Troy want to set up a day to visit Greendale for something."   
Jeff looked at his phone with confusion. "Why would you _want_ to go to Greendale?"  
"It's a surprise for the rest of the group. You'll find out when it happens." Abed said, trying to sound conspicuous to get him excited.   
Jeff rolled his eyes in aggravation. "Fine. I'll text you his number."

Abed texted the dean as soon as he got his number.   
"Hey. It's Abed. Can me and Troy and visit Greendale someday to use your projector?"  
Craig had a text! He hardly got texts! Especially from Abed. They must have really bonded! At least, he hoped they bonded and it wasn't just another prank from a foreign number like with Jeff.   
"Hey!! I missed you!! You and your friends are welcome anytime! :) what do you need the projector for?"   
"You'll see." Abed replied vaguely so no one ruined the suspense, not even the dean.   
"You're quite the character, Abed. I like having you around."   
Abed raised an eyebrow quizzically. "Thanks?"   
"By the way, how'd you get my number?" the dean asked. "I don't think I ever added you to my contacts before now."   
"Jeff gave it to me."   
"Why does everyone have his number but me?"  
"According to Jeff, it always feels like you're hitting on him." Abed recalled.   
"I _am_ hitting on him!"   
Abed thought for a moment before asking,  
"Has he ever flirted back?"   
"Well, no. But I can't hide these feelings!" the dean complained.   
"We can talk about your feelings later. Can we use the projector?"  
"Yes. Hope to see you soon! :)"   
_Splendid_.

About a month later, Abed invited the group, the dean, and all of the students to a screening of the DVD at Greendale. Of course, the dean showed up in a ridiculous outfit that made him look like a gameshow announcer for no reason other than to tell everyone about it like he always does.

The movie was fantastic. Pretty much everyone was talking about the ending.   
"That scene with Troy's eyes came out so beautifully. So did the ending hug. And everything. All of the little lovey moments were edited so well. I'm so glad I helped you guys make this masterpiece." Annie rambled with delight.   
Jeff was bored the whole time, or at least he acted like it. "Nice. You two brought a fanfiction to life."  
Abed wasn't bothered by that description, though it sounded mean. That is basically what they did.   
Shirley applauded them both. "I did not see that coming! I thought they were just really good friends."   
"Friends don't kiss like that." Britta countered. "Are we talking about the movie, or Troy and Abed themselves?"   
"Could be both. If those two were dating I wouldn't be surprised." Chang gestured to Troy and Abed.   
The montage came in to answer all their questions.

"I can see it in your eyes."   
"I'm sorry Abed, I love your writing, but that scene was really gay."   
"Troy, _we're_ gay."   
"Right.Shit.Forgot."   
"How do you _forget_ you're gay?"

Everyone laughed, not really at Troy, just because it was funny.   
Troy looked at his boyfriend. "I thought you cut that out."   
"I did, but I saved it because of the next part."

"With you, it doesn't feel gay, or at least, not in the way I was taught it was supposed to feel, like bad or weird. It feels good, like home."

A chorus of "awe"s made it all better.

That, and the mistakes where Abed accidentally said a lot of really dramatic lines in a super monotone voice, or messed up the voices on other characters. One particularly hilarious instance was where his Blorgon impression was just a bit too crazed.

Troy covered his mouth as he died laughing. "I didn't know your voice could do that."

There was a few other cute moments in there, like Troy pointing out how Abed called him his constable, and just the two goofing around with the soundboard to find what later became the Blorgon noises they used in the actual movie.   
The montage ended on Annie saying how grateful she was to help, and the signature handshake with "Troy and Abed making movies!"

Everyone clapped, hooted, and hollered.   
"So you and Troy _are_ dating?" the dean whispered to Abed.   
Abed still didn't look away from the screen. He could never not watch a whole movie. He even liked to sit through the credits. "Yeah, I thought everyone knew."   
"Most of us kind of figured, we just didn't wanna say anything until we knew for sure. That way, we could _matter-of-factly_ talk behind your back about-"   
Abed cut him off."We know, but hey."   
Shirley tried to her best to be genuinely happy for them. "That's nice."   
"Neat! I always saw a deep connection between you two. Like me and Jeff." The dean looked at him expectantly.   
"Craig, please. We're nothing like them."   
"Yeah, we're way cuter." Abed lifted a finger to emphasize his point. "And we now make professional, feature-length films together."  
"And you two are not dating, you just make him uncomfortable." Chang pointed out.   
The dean scoffed. "You're one to talk. You make everyone uncomfortable."   
"Can we stop fighting and appreciate everything we just witnessed?" Annie cut in.

They all nodded and congratulated Troy and Abed on their movie.   
Britta eyed the new "TrobedTV" logo that ended the credits, then Abed. "So you guys are really doing this thing, huh?"   
He finally turned his head to meet her eyes. "Yep. This is my dream. I wouldn't wanna do it with anyone else."

No one got the Inspector quite like his Constable.   
  



End file.
